Chris Jericho Vs Kommander made for a bizarre match graphic but if it was going to be chaotic one way or the other, it had to veer on the side of great in order to validate the vile Don Callis' pitch for Jericho to join his Family.
In the end, it scanned as a good bit of business made better by the post-match.
Playing full heel after teasing a turn last week, Jericho bossed Kommander through the action, forcing the aerialist into taking risks to pull off his jaw-dropping feats of athleticism. This made them matter more too - a tremendous near fall was extracted from a ropewalk springboard shooting star press, but the only one that truly registered was the actual one; Jericho locking in the Liontamer got him a quick tap win so the show could get back to his big decision.
It wasn't made here, but Callis is certainly laying it on nice and thick. Showing footage of them as a team in 1995 alongside Bad News Allen was on-brand carny pandering but it might be working. Jake Hager as the Beefcake to Jericho's Hogan tried to get inside 'The Ocho's head later in the show but he wasn't giving the game away.
Perhaps, now he's not the fifth man for the Blackpool Combat Club, that will take place at Blood & Guts.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years.
As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say.
With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.
